


Chuck Versus the Red Tide

by newredshoes



Category: Chuck - Fandom
Genre: Apocalypse, Gen, Zombies, squid - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-07-19
Updated: 2009-07-19
Packaged: 2017-10-13 13:43:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/138009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/newredshoes/pseuds/newredshoes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><b>Prompt:</b> <i>Casey and Sarah die in the apocalypse protecting Chuck, but he's learned a lot from them that helps him keep his friends and family alive in the aftermath.</i><br/><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8155417.stm">San Diego menaced by jumbo squid</a>; <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/07/16/national/a115502D18.DTL">more</a>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chuck Versus the Red Tide

**Author's Note:**

  * For [trollprincess](https://archiveofourown.org/users/trollprincess/gifts).



The very first one they see takes Casey from behind. One minute he’s peering through Chuck’s living room window, the next he’s engulfed by thrashing red tentacles. Sarah’s already on her feet shooting the thing while Casey springs into action with always-alarming efficiency. Chuck just stands by staring at him. He’d had no idea you could keep a machete there.

“Chuck, get down!” Sarah yells, and he’s crouching behind the couch before he has a chance to think about it. She kicks open the door and charges into the courtyard. Chuck hears a few shots discharged, then nothing. “Stay down,” Sarah calls.

“Got it!” Chuck answers, and listens for more. The apartment complex stays quiet. He strains for sounds of Casey, a little grunting or growling or even a reassuring snarl, but there’s nothing, not even muttered curses. The minutes tick on, and there’s a lot more he doesn’t hear. No cars on the street, no neighbors rushing into the courtyard to see what happened, no Sarah to explain it’s nothing to worry about. Chuck peeks up over the back of the couch. The shot-out window means the apartment isn’t secure anymore. He gulps and pushes himself upright. He hisses Sarah’s name, then Casey’s, then glances at his watch.

Chuck has a hard enough time staying in cars. The living room never stands a chance. He creeps up to the window to check the courtyard. Casey’s feet stick out from behind the fountain. His machete lies nearby amid a pile of goo and a few twitching tentacles. Sarah’s nowhere in sight. Chuck hurries outside, narrowly avoiding the slime on the bricks, and circles the fountain to find an indisputably dead John Casey.

The skin and flesh that’s still intact blisters with red welts. That Chuck doesn’t hurl instantly is a medical mystery. He stares, waiting for something to happen, like a flash or for Casey to recover and berate him for exposing himself, but Casey stays pretty dead and Chuck starts to hyperventilate. He yells for Sarah again, and crashes into the landscaping, pushing aside hibiscus bushes. She doesn’t come to shut him up.

He returns to the courtyard. Casey’s still sneering up at him from the ground. Chuck turns away from him and takes out his cell phone, his eyes on the roofs and sky. That buzz in his ear means her phone, at least, is alive, but her ringtone isn’t going off anywhere in hearing range. Ellie’s and Awesome’s phones go straight to voicemail, and Chuck leaves stammering, frantic messages for them both. He tries his watch and any other bugged items he knows about, but for once neither the CIA or the NSA seem to be listening. An incoming call interrupts him dialing 911.

“Buddy, where are you?” Morgan squawks. “Holy cow, am I glad you picked up.”

“Morgan! Oh God.” He ducks back into the apartment. “I’m at home. Where are you? Did something happen?”

“Where am I? I’m at work, barricading the doors. Have you seen what’s out there?”

Chuck feels his stomach shrivel up. “We didn’t get a good look at them.”

“We? Who’s we? Is Ellie all right?”

He shakes his head. “Me and Sarah and Casey. I don’t know where Ellie and Devon are.”

“Chuck? Is that Chuck?”

“Hey!”

Chuck frowns. “Morgan?”

“Chuck!” screeches Lester, his voice muffled by someone fighting for the phone. “Come quick, you’ve got to come help us! Emmett is trying to _eat us—!”_

The line goes dead. Chuck hits redial but all he gets is the Buy More hold music. The movements seem to happen without any input from him: he grabs the keys to the Nerd Herder, pockets the phone and hurries out the front door, carefully avoiding looking at Casey. He’s halfway down the sidewalk before he pauses, then backtracks. Gingerly, he fishes Casey’s machete from the pile of goo. The tentacles keep twitching. One last, involuntary glance at Casey convinces Chuck of two things: first, that he shouldn’t have looked, and second, that Casey seems to be grinning approvingly at Chuck’s practicality. Then again, a guy with half a face leaves a lot to the imagination.

He takes the fastest back route to the Buy More, the one Sarah had painstakingly plotted out before Chuck told her he and Morgan had timed it three years ago. He very nearly crashes the first time he sees the flocks of squid circling overhead. They’re huge red suckers, swimming through the air, congregating and then dispersing, an unmistakeable plan of attack. He sits transfixed at the traffic light until an Air Jordan drops onto the hood of the car, part of a leg still laced up inside. Chuck screams and slams on the accelerator, not braking until he screeches into the designated Buy More employee parking slots.

Jeff is standing on the other side of the double glass doors. Chuck glances down at the machete in his hand. “Let me in!” he shouts, pounding on the locked door. “Jeff, come on!” Jeff stares past him, which is pretty normal for the guy, but Chuck twists and looks over his shoulder anyway, just in case. The parking lot is mostly empty, though someone seems to be wandering through the northwest corner looking for her car.

“Stand aside, Jeff.” Anna appears at the door, katana in hand. She narrows her eyes, studying Chuck, who suddenly feels a little bit inadequate. “It’s all right,” she announces. “He’s one of us.”

The doors slide open and Chuck slips in the moment there’s enough room. “What’s going on, guys? Where is everybody?” He looks around the store: Big Mike’s office is shut and the lights are on. The curtains on the entertainment center are closed. A few employees peep above the aisles, staring at him. Anna grips her katana.

“It’s a zombie apocalypse,” she says in a monotone.

“The squids did it,” says Jeff from very close behind Chuck’s shoulder. Chuck jerks away. Jeff widens his eyes. “They have neurotoxins.”

“They almost got Jeff,” confirms Anna. “He got away, though.” She rests her blade on her shoulder, casual and meaningful at the same time. “Morgan and Lester are in the home entertainment room. Big Mike’s in his office, and some customers are holed up in the locker room.”

Chuck takes a breath and nods. “Where’s Emmett?”

Jeff points toward the glass doors. “Right there.” Chuck turns and jumps.

Emmett has his face pressed up against the doors. His glasses are broken and his gray vest is in tatters. His eyes are bleary and parts of his cheeks and scalp are missing. He moans and unsuccessfully tries to push his way through the glass. “You’re not welcome here!” Jeff shouts. “Begone!”

Another zombie joins him, pawing at the door. It’s the woman from the parking lot. She has blonde hair. Chuck nearly hurls again.

Anna props one hand on her hip. “He went out to chase the squids toward the Large Mart with a broom. That was about an hour ago.”

“We have to get out of here,” Chuck says, turning away. “It’s not safe.” He scans the store, _points of egress_ and _poor cover_ echoing in his head in Casey’s voice.

“And go where?” Anna knits her brows. “We have the news here. As opposed to mutant zombie-making squid. Apparently they’ve already destroyed San Diego,” she adds, with a hint of schadenfreud.

Chuck looks down at his shoes for a moment. “The Orange Orange has a bunker.”

“You mean a freezer?” says Jeff, looking away from Emmett and the blonde woman, who are leaving a variety of smudges on the glass.

“No.” Chuck starts walking toward the home entertainment center. “I mean a bunker. Go round everybody up.” So maybe Beckman will have him killed. He should only live so long.

Morgan hugs his elbows and stands next to Chuck, once all the stragglers have been collected and are blinking at him from the center aisle. “How’re we doing, _mon capitain?_ We can totally take this parking lot. I mean, look at us.” He nods. “Yeah. This is so Romero. Who’s going to mess with us?” Chuck takes stock of his plucky band of survivors. Anna looks far too comfortable with her sword in hand. Lester has loaded up a shopping cart full of flashlights and spare batteries. Jeff is handing out packets of edible energy gel. Big Mike has taken Norman off the wall and clutches it close, having insisted that the marlin’s spear could come in handy.

Truth be told, Chuck hadn’t expected the end of the world to be so cartoony. He tries very hard not to think about zombie John Casey, or Sarah vanished or in pieces under the hydrangeas. Ellie and Awesome still aren’t answering their phones, but Chuck tells himself it’s because they’re busy at the hospital. He leaves messages to call him and to come to the Orange Orange as soon as they can, if they can. Ellie’s a doctor, though, so he doesn’t have much hope. She took an oath. She takes that stuff very seriously.

“All right,” he says, gesturing with the machete. “Let’s move it out. Lester, just take what you can carry. Everybody keep your eyes peeled.”

“You’re sure about this?” mutters Morgan, leaning close and talking out the side of his beard. “I mean, this isn’t just some room you and Sarah can fit into, right? You’re not joking about this Orange Orange safehouse thing?”

“No,” says Chuck, as the doors power up and slide open. The Intersect has nothing to say about this mission, but he’s had better help than that. He steps forward. “I can get us there."


End file.
